MKNE political information

"The right to search for the truth implies also a duty: one must not conceal any part of what one has recognised to be true." Albert Einstein.
"In a room where people unanimously maintain a conspiracy of silence, one word of truth sounds like a pistol shot." Czeslaw Milosz

Monday, November 28, 2005

A strange death in Iraq

It is hard not to recall David Kelly. An US military ethics specialist in Iraq dies, possibly from suicide. As the LA Times story says:

WASHINGTON — One hot, dusty day in June, Col. Ted Westhusing was found dead in a trailer at a military base near the Baghdad airport, a single gunshot wound to the head. The Army would conclude that he committed suicide with his service pistol. At the time, he was the highest-ranking officer to die in Iraq.The Army closed its case. But the questions surrounding Westhusing's deathcontinue. Westhusing, 44, was no ordinary officer. He was one of the Army's leading scholars of military ethics, a full professor at West Point who volunteered to serve in Iraq to be able to better teach his students. He had a doctorate in philosophy; his dissertation was an extended meditation on the meaning of honor.

Something that angered Westhusing was the role of Security Contractor companies in Iraq. A psychiatrist who reviewed his letters and e-mails said:

"Despite his intelligence, his ability to grasp the idea that profit is animportant goal for people working in the private sector was surprisinglylimited," wrote Lt. Col. Lisa Breitenbach. "He could not shift his mind-set fromthe military notion of completing a mission irrespective of cost, nor could hechange his belief that doing the right thing because it was the right thing todo should be the sole motivator for businesses."

Business as usual on the streets of Iraq? Was that his problem? The kind of thing reported in the Trophy Killings video?

I am not taking up here the debates on whether this was suicide, but there are of course such debates going on...

Ex-Links - delete queue

ImprintHosted by blogspot.com part of Google.com 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, United States of America. This blog is posted by Edis Bevan in his personal capacity as an individual.